4th Grade Basketball

Ben decided to try out for basketball for the first time this year. He's on the traveling B team and having a good time, despite some tough losses. Some of the blowouts include a 38-4 loss and a 45-5 loss. Last weekend he had a two game tournament that didn't start until 10:00 am, so I decided to load everyone up and make the 45 min drive to the gym. Perhaps it was due to Brian's good coaching, perhaps the boys have made some improvements, or perhaps my presence and that of the 3 younger brothers crying, fighting and making a scene led Ben's team to win BOTH of their games. 17-16 in OT and 18-16 with Ben making the deciding basket! Congrats, boys!

Pre-game pep talk!

Ben plays with lots of intensity.

Brian coaches with lots of intensity!


I know, I know, but this was at the end of the game and they were excited about the scoreboard.
The proof!
Does this scream 10-year old basketball or what?

Photos courtesy of a player's uncle who's got a good camera!

Prayer Requests

One week from Monday I head back to work. On paper, it looks relatively easy. Go to school from noon-4:00. Not bad. However, the reality is I feel very overwhelmed at what all this means for our family.

I've been feeling very anxious about everything lately and decided to share them as prayer requests rather than letting them eat at me for my last week of maternity leave.

*Luke will transition to daycare easily: good naps, take a bottle well, stay healthy

*Luke will have more and more nights of good sleep (last night was 10 1/2 hours!!)

*I will use my time wisely and prioritize what needs to be done. (Housework, cooking, errands, my own homework, boys' homework, family time, exercise, devotions, and I'm sure there's plenty I'm forgetting right now)

*School will go well. After 14 years of teaching I'm still very critical of myself as a teacher.

*Evenings will be as calm as possible. This tends to be the hardest time of day for all of us. Tired, lots to do, limited time, etc...

*My milk supply will remain enough to continue breastfeeding. Being stressed and busy isn't the best combo for a breastfeeding mom.

*Patience & energy

*Trust that God will give me what I need for each day. I tend to project myself into the future and stress about all the what-ifs. Some of my favorite quotes from Jesus Calling are:

"Do not worry about tomorrow. My grace is sufficient for you, but its sufficiency is only for one day at a time. When you worry about the future, you heap day upon day of troubles onto your flimsy frame. You stagger under this heavy load which I never intended you to carry."

"You will realize that most of the things that worry you are not important."

"Refuse to waste energy by worrying, and you will have strength to spare."

I'm feeling a little better already!

Labor of Love

A couple of years ago Matt got a police headquarters lego city with 953 pieces. We put it together and he played with it for a while. Eventually, and partially in thanks to Adam, it was broken apart. Matt's been asking for a new set, but at $100 each, we weren't ready to buy the exact same set a second time. We found the directions for building it online, (guess who had ripped up the originals), and a few days ago, I got to work rebuilding the 953 piece set.

5 days and about 10 hours of time later, the police headquarters is rebuilt, and we're going to store it in a very safe place!

First Giggles!

What a difference a day can make! Last evening was one of our toughest with Luke. We were giving him his required once a day bottle and it was torture on all of us. He was crying hard, Brian and I were taking turns trying to help him, I even ran to Target to get a different kind of bottle that people online swear by. None of it worked. Eventually we got about 3 oz in him with the original bottle and he was conked out! He slept about 6 1/2 hours which felt heavenly.

He's been in a really good mood today, so I decided I'd try to get the bottle in him before the craziness of the evening hits. He woke up from his nap and 15 minutes later he had downed a 5 oz bottle! Praise the Lord!!

He was very smiley after that and we've known that he's been on the brink of giggling for a few days, so I grabbed the camera and captured his first giggles!

You'll have to endure the fake sneezing from me, but it's very much worth it to hear his little laugh.

Sunday Night Stress

I'm the queen of Sunday night stress, and I'm not even working right now. When I'm working the stress kicks in at an even higher level. I wish I could have more control over the feelings of stress & anxiety than I do. It's very frustrating.

What's stressing me out tonight:

*Luke isn't sleeping well. He's had a handful of 8+hour nights, but usually it's more like 4 hours. The last several nights have been 3 hour stretches.

*Luke isn't taking a bottle well. We're working on a bottle a day to get him used to it before I go back to school Feb. 7th. It has taken as long as an hour to get 3 oz in him. I'm guessing this is a huge part of why he's not sleeping longer, but I don't feel like I have a choice. He has to learn to take a bottle.

*$$

Brian and I don't fight about $ ever which I'm so thankful for. He's very calm and relaxed about it. He's a little bit more of a spender than I am, but he's always saying we'll be just fine. For 12 years he's been right, but I still get stressed. When I go back to work we'll be adding a significant chunk to our daycare expenses, the boys' activities are getting more expensive, food is going up, etc...

*TV

I think our kids watch too much TV, but honestly, I don't always know what to do about it. With 4 kids and a 10 year span, their interest levels are all over the place. This can make playing a family game or other activities tough, if not impossible to do together. Sometimes they play together well, but a lot of times they fight. Sometimes TV becomes way too convenient. When the weekends come or the boys have a day off of school, I often feel like I don't have good suggestions for them while I'm with Luke. I stress that I don't do a better job in this area.

Family Photo Shoot

Brian D ~ Thank you SO MUCH for taking time out of your own vacation to take pictures of all of our families! You have great talent, and we are so excited to have these pictures!

Pictures from Brian D.

Most of the pictures from Uncle Brian are self-explanatory. You'll see some of our group doing the ropes course at the MOA. We also had a lot of fun with a silly pair of glasses which Brian put into a collage.

Christmas Part 2

Heather's family of 6 arrived in MN on Christmas Eve. They went directly from the airport to grab a quick bite to eat, and on to Christmas Eve service at church. Our family took up an entire row plus a few extra seats. Fun to have everyone there.

After church we went to Holly's for a delicious dinner of wild rice soup and bread and opened stockings. The kids had a great time playing with all of their cousins.

At this point I slowed down in my picture taking because my BIL, Brian, is a fabulous photographer and was taking lots of pictures. My next post will be some of my favorite shots that he took.

Activities we did while everyone was here:

* Christmas day spent at our house....lots of food, playing with toys, and more food

* Sledding / tubing

* Bowling

* Wii "Just Dance 2"

* Sleepovers with different combos of cousins

* Mall of America

* Open gym at Lifetime

* Games, movies & popcorn

Some great memories!

The Smith clan at church

Bad lighting, but a look at the busy, crazy fun!

Stockings at Holly's house

So fun to see the cousins together

Food! Food! Food!

Amazing how Katy juggles the "brothers!"

Adam & Zach

Nathan, Leah & Nana

Playing Scrabble. Lots and lots of Scrabble...

Christmas baby, Luke

The coolest, but also the most annoying toy of the year! A remote control helicopter. Ben managed to land it on top of the ceiling fan.

Christmas Part 1

Christmas 2010. A very special Christmas since all of the Smith siblings, spouses and grandkids were in town together! 23 of us in all. Luke's family came into town first and it was nice to be able to spend time with their family and get to know their boys...all 3 of them. Charlie is a sweet tempered 2 1/2 year old and Nathan and Isaac are adorable 7 1/2 month old twins.

Going for a short walk down to the cul-de-sac. Charlie was loving eating the snow and the twins were so cute in their matching snowsuits.

Happy boy Isaac
We went to the Children's Museum with Holly and her kids, our family of 6, Luke's family of 5 and Nana & Papa! Since it was a few days before Christmas, it really wasn't all that busy. We had a great time!
Can't get enough of the snowsuits!
Their painted faces
Charlie's mug shot
Baby Bjorning it! I love this picture!
The water room was a big hit.
Even Ben spent a long time in there.
Max was in heaven in the construction area.
The mamas hanging out in the "ant hill".
Big Luke and baby Luke

More to come soon...